Dependent and Independent Verb Forms - Irish

Irish

In Early Modern Irish, the absolute/conjunct distinction was on the wane. It was less thoroughgoing than in Old Irish, but more than in the modern languages. In the conjunct of the present tense, endingless forms like Old Irish ·gair (cf. Gaelic glac and Manx dilg above) were gradually being replaced by forms with the ending -(e)ann. The distinction was found not only in the 3rd person singular, but also in the 1st and 3rd persons plural. Thus in Early Modern Irish, distinctions like the following were made:

The distinction was also found in the 1st and 3rd persons of the future tense:

In Modern Irish, all of these distinctions have been lost. Sometimes it is the independent form that was generalized (e.g. molfaidh "will praise"), sometimes the dependent form (e.g. molann "praises").

However, the deuterotonic/prototonic distinction is still found in many irregular verbs, for example:

Irish has two types of relative clause: direct and indirect (see Irish syntax#Relative clauses for details). The distinction between them is shown firstly by the fact that the relative particle a triggers lenition of the following verb in direct relatives but eclipsis of the verb in indirect relatives, and secondly (where the distinction is made) it takes the independent form of the verb in direct relatives and the dependent form in indirect relatives. For example:

• an obair a bhí mé a dhéanamh "the work which I was doing" (direct relative; independent form)
• an fear a raibh a mhac san ospidéal "the man whose son was in the hospital (indirect relative; dependent form)

Irish also has two types of conditional clause, which are introduced by two different words for "if": má introduces realis clauses, and dá introduces irrealis clauses. Realis clauses indicate conditionals with a possible fulfillment (e.g. "if he is agreeable", which leaves open the possibility that he is), while irrealis clauses indicate purely hypothetical conditionals (e.g. "if it were a nice day", but it isn't). The realis particle má triggers lenition of the following verb and takes the independent form, while the irrealis particle dá triggers eclipsis and takes the dependent form. For example:

• má chonaic sí é "if she saw it" (realis; independent form)
• dá bhfaigheadh sí é "if she had found it" (irrealis; dependent form)